Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Colossal Biosciences, the company best known for its mission to bring back the woolly mammoth and two other extinct species, raised $10.2 billion in a $200 million Series C from TWG Global, the investment firm of Guggenheim Partners co-founder Mark Walter. and billionaire Thomas Tull. The funding comes two years after the company closed its previous round at a reported valuation 1.5 billion dollars.
Why would investors pour so much capital into an apparent valuation jump for a company that has yet to generate any revenue and is resurrecting an extinct mammoth and pursuing cutting-edge projects. Tasmanian tigerNot expected to be completed until 2028?
Colossal Biosciences co-founder and CEO Ben Lamm told TechCrunch that “the investor base is very impressed with the speed with which we create new technologies.”
The company claims it has made significant progress on its three main projects, which include the dodo bird in addition to the mammoth and the Tasmanian tiger (also known as the thylacine). resurrect these animals.
Colossal’s approach to bringing back extinct animals involves mapping the species’ entire genome and then comparing it to their closest living relative, which in the mammoth’s case is the Asian elephant. For the mammoth and thylacine, Lamm said, this step has been completed, and now the company’s scientists are using the gene-editing tool CRISPR to edit the cells of the Asian elephant. Lamm explained that in the final step, those cells will be implanted into an egg and the embryo will be implanted into an elephant, which will give birth to a baby mammoth.
To achieve its mission, Colossal is building various technologies, including artificial wombs, through which the company hopes to spawn future generations of “extinct” animals.
“Some of these technologies alone are changing the world for human health, agtech, all these different categories,” he said.
While Colossal Biosciences’ main goal is to restore extinct species and increase biodiversity, the company’s main value to investors is likely in the potential of its technology.
Colossal plans to divest three businesses over the next two years, including one for artificial insemination technology that could be used in fertility treatments.
The company has already created two businesses: One, Breaking, helps break down plastics, and last year 10.5 million dollars in seed funding, and another is Form Bio, a secure computational biology platform 30 million dollars in funding.
Government cooperation is another potential source of revenue. Although Colossal offers its conservation technology to governments at no charge, Lamm said some countries have sought Colossal’s help in protecting endangered species. Some governments are also exploring extermination projects for animals that have cultural and, in some cases, spiritual value to their people.
If Colossal successfully revives and reintroduces any of the species into its ecosystems, the company expects to generate revenue by selling biodiversity credits, a market-based mechanism similar to carbon credits.
All three revenue streams — technology, government collaboration and biodiversity credits — can generate billions of dollars in annual recurring revenue, Lamm said, and they show “short-term, medium-term, long-term economic benefits.” potential of the company.
